And, as we continue to see the financial systems and banking giants saved, most
remedies are designed without women in mind and are ignoring the real impact,
especially on women of color in the United States. Recently, women and
poverty advocates organized “A Day of Voices: Women's Tribunal on Poverty” in New York. At that
meeting, the disparate impact of the downturn was highlighted:

On November 4, 2008, the prison doors of the trickle down, free-market
thinking that has captivated official U.S. economic imagination for
decades slid open a crack.  On November
5, leading media affirmed that the unfettered market does not necessarily produce
social and economic wellbeing, but may breed insecurity and risk, sweatshops
and exploitation, global warming and pollution. 
The New York Times, for example, proclaimed that Mr. Obama won the
election because of the “utter failure of government to protect its people,” observing
that government indeed has an important role in regulating the economy fairly in
order to safeguard common goods such as healthcare, education, and the

"Global patterns such as casualisation and contracting-out are emerging, which pose a major threat to working men and women right across the globe.  As the global economic situation worsens, this threat can be expected to spread wider and deeper, and governments need to act responsibly to ensure secure, decent jobs at a time when working people, and the revitalization of the world economy, most need it," said General Secretary of the ITUC, Guy Ryder.